Vatican Says It Will Excommunicate Women Priests
My editorial comments are in bold red.
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Vatican says will excommunicate women priests
Pilgrims attend a mass for the canonisation of five new saints celebrated by Pope Benedict XVI in St. Peter’s Square in the Vatican October 23, 2005. The Vatican issued its most explicit decree so far against the ordination of women priests on Thursday, punishing them and the bishops who try to ordain them with automatic excommunication.
By Phil Stewart
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – The Vatican issued its most explicit decree so far against the ordination of women priests on Thursday, punishing them and the bishops who try to ordain them with automatic excommunication.
The decree was written by the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and published in the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano, giving it immediate effect.
A Vatican spokesman said the decree made the Church’s existing ban on women priests more explicit by clarifying that excommunication would follow all such ordinations.
Excommunication forbids those affected from receiving the sacraments or sharing in acts of public worship.
Rev. Tom Reese, a senior fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University, said he thought the decree was meant to send a warning to the growing number of Catholics who favor admitting women to the priesthood.
“I think the reason they’re doing this is that they’ve realized there is more and more support among Catholics for ordaining women, and they want to make clear that this is a no-no,” Reese said.
If you’re a woman priest they excommunicate you, but if you’re a male priest who rapes a kid, you won’t be. Truly mind-blowing.
The Church says it cannot change the rules banning women from the priesthood because Christ chose only men as his apostles. Church law states that only a baptized male can be made a priest.
This is a truly vapid argument. Jesus’s apostles were Jews. So does that mean non-Jews cannot be priests? Vatican many-valued logic is at work here.
Proponents of women’s ordination say Christ was only acting according to the social norms of his time.
They cite the letters of Saint Paul, some of the earliest texts of Christianity, to show that women played important roles in the early church.
Attempts to ordain women priests are highly unusual. But the archbishop of St. Louis earlier this year declared three women excommunicated after an ordination ceremony in his diocese.
Excommunication is usually “ferendae sententiae”, imposed as punishment.
But some offences, including heresy, schism, and laying violent hands on the Pope, are considered so disruptive of ecclesiastical life that they trigger automatic excommunication, or “latae sententiae”.
The decree says that women priests and the bishops who ordain them would be excommunicated “latae sententiae”.
Doesn’t the Latin just turn you on?
This was the same excommunication invoked against a renegade African archbishop who also broke Vatican rules when he ordained four married men bishops in 2006.
The archbishop, Emmanuel Milingo, made world headlines in 2001 for getting married himself in Reverend Sun Myung Moon’s Unification Church at a mass wedding in a New York hotel. His union was never recognized by the Catholic Church.
The evidence is clear: the all-male celibate priesthood must be defended at all costs. Folks, it’s clear on the face of it that this Vatican BS is all about power and control. And the sheeple will continue to be controlled because the sheeple allow it. It’s part of a Catholic’s identity.
(Writing by Phil Stewart, editing by Tim Pearce)
6 Responses to “Vatican Says It Will Excommunicate Women Priests”
May 30, 2008 at 2:56 am
IF GOD SEES FIT TO CALL WOMEN INTO THE PRIESTHOOD…HE WILL HAVE WOMEN PRIESTS REGARDLESS OF WHAT CONTRARY OPINION IS EXPRESSED. IF THEIR ROOTS ARE IN ROMAN CATHOLISM, THAT IS WHAT THEY
ARE… ROMAN CATHOLIC. IF A TRIBUNAL DECIDES THAT THEY CAN NOLONGER BE ROMAN CATHOLIC BE-
CAUSE OF A SEXUAL BIAS…THEY HAVE TO ACCEPT THIS AND MOVE FORWARD. INTERNALLY, THEY ARE STILL ROMAN CATHOLIC AND THEY BECOME A PART OF A CHURCH WHO HAS DENIED ITSELF BY DENYING ITS DAUGHTERS FROM SERVING GOD IN THE MANNER BY WHICH THEY ARE CALLED TO DO SO. ROME CAN ONLY CONTROL ITSELF—AND IT DOES NOT DO THIS TASK VERY WELL….WHAT IT HAS NO CONTROL OVER, EXCOMMUNICATION, HAS NO MEANING FOR THIS SUBSET OF CATHOLICISM. SO BASHING WOMEN PRIESTS MEANS NOTHING…WHAT WILL DEFINE THE COURSE OF CATHOLICISMS IN AMERICA AND ELSEWHERE WILL BE WHEN THE PEOPLE OF GOD (THE LAITY) BEGIN TO EXCOMMUNICATE THE HEIRARCHY FROM THEMSELVES. THEN THEY WILL KNOW THAT THERE EXIST AND EVEN GREATER THREAT TO THEM THAN WOMEN PRIEST WHO HAVE THE SAME RIGHTS AND LINEAGE AS THEIR MALE COUNTERPARTS.
DOESN’T ROME GET IT? ROMAN CATHOLICS WILL ACCEPT WHAT IS NOT HARMFUL TO THEM OR THEIR CHILDREN…ALL WE HAVE TO DO IS CONTINUE TO READ THE NEWSPAPER. THE MORE WE READ, THE MORE WE KNOW…YOU DON’T THINK THAT ROME HAS EVER EXCOMMUNICATED A PRINTING PRESS, DO YOU?
May 30, 2008 at 3:11 am
Excommunication in medieval times had some significance. It doesn’t have much anymore. Nowadays it happens mostly when people simply excommunicate themselves by voting with their feet.
May 30, 2008 at 11:59 am
Think women don’t abuse, do not fool yourself the teachers in Florida are women and many are abusing……. becareful what you wish for.
May 30, 2008 at 2:58 pm
It would be interesting to know if there is a scholarly treatment of the history of excommunication in the RCC, the Eastern Catholic Churches & a contrast between them, if, as I assume there is, a difference in their experiences.
May 30, 2008 at 3:23 pm
“A top Vatican official said in a statement Friday that the church acted following what it called “so-called ordinations” in various parts of the world.
Monsignor Angelo Amato of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith says the Vatican also wants to provide bishops with a clear response on the issue.”
WOULDN’T IT BE GREAT IF SOME TOP VATICAN OFFICIAL, ANY VATICAN OFFICIAL, MAYBE EVEN POPE BENEDICT XVI WOULD –
“PROVIDE BISHOPS WITH A CLEAR RESPONSE ON THE ISSUE” OF THE SEXUAL ABUSE OF CHILDREN, WOMEN, INCLUDING WOMEN RELIGIOUS, MEN AND VULNERABLE ADULTS.
Raping boys and girls, women and men. Now there’s something to be EXCOMMUNICATED over.
May 30, 2008 at 4:26 pm
[...] This translation of the excommunication decree is a follow up to a previous entry on this blog. [...]